In-race updates from the Six Hours of Silverstone

While Kazuki Nakajima is still out front in the Six Hours of Silverstone with one hour remaining, the win is still to play for with the Porsches less than 20 seconds behind.

Nakajima and the No. 8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid have been out front for the past couple of stints while the sister No. 7 car is out of contention following a crash earlier in the race.

Brendon Hartley is currently less than 20 seconds down the road in the No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid which led for a short while earlier with Timo Bernhard at the wheel, while Nick Tandy is two seconds further back in the No. 1 car.

Bruno Senna leads LMP2 in the No. 31 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca 07 Gibson with the Alpine A470 Gibson having lost the lead during the fifth hour, after staying out front for all of the race beforehand.

Alex Lynn is currently in the Signatech Alpine Matmut car, running fourth.

Harry Tincknell leads a Ford Chip Ganassi Racing 1-2 in GTE-Pro, after Billy Johnson had led for a while at the halfway point in the other Ford GT.

Aston Martin Racing is still out front in GTE-Am, with Pedro Lamy holding a five-second lead over the Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GTE.

No. 7 Toyota crash:

The No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid appears out of the Six Hours of Silverstone after Jose Maria Lopez went off course and hit the barrier at Copse.

The Argentine driver was caught out by a damp track at the fast right-hander, going straight on into the gravel and barrier, bringing out the second Full Course Yellow of the race.

The car was running in fourth but had been leading for a while earlier in the race.

Kazuki Nakajima is currently leading the race in the No. 8 Toyota, while Earl Bamber and Andre Lotterer are second and third in the two Porsche 919 Hybrids.

Matt Rao leads the way in LMP2 for Signatech Alpine Matmut, while Billy Johnson is out front in GTE-Pro in the No. 66 Ford GT.

The first FCY came just minutes earlier, with Kevin Estre’s Porsche 911 RSR going up in flames with an engine fire, causing the field to be neutralized for seven minutes.

Paul Dalla Lana is leading GTE-Am for Aston Martin Racing although has spun out twice, most recently after being hit by Richard Lietz at Luffield.

Hour 3:

Toyota is back in control of the Six Hours of Silverstone at the halfway mark, following an intermittent shower that put the then-leading Porsches on the back foot.

The No. 8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Kazuki Nakajima holds a 36-second lead over the No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid, now in the hands of Earl Bamber, with all four LMP1 contenders back on slick tires.

Bamber’s co-driver, Timo Bernhard, took over the lead in the third hour, building a 25-second margin over the No. 8 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, after the Porsche pitted for hybrid intermediate tires.

Porsche opted to bring in the No. 1 again after only a few laps for a similar tire change, while both Toyotas stayed out during in the rain.

The shower, however, was very short lived and Porsche had to call its cars back in to mount slicks again.

The No. 7 Toyota lost pace after the first hour due a suspected rear anti-roll bar issue, while Kamui Kobayashi locked up his brakes and beached the car during a rain shower and is running a lap down now.

Signatech Alpine continues to dominate the LMP2 class, with Gustavo Menezes building up a 50-second lead in the No. 36 Oreca 07 Gibson on the No. 38 Jackie Chang DC Racing Oreca.

The No. 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca lost ground following an extra pitstop to fix a broken door latch.

GTE-Pro has remained in control of Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, with the No. 66 Ford GT leading the way ahead of the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE of James Calado.

While Calado initially had let the No. 91 and No. 92 Porsche 911 RSRs go by, the Brit regained both positions during the rain shower.

The No. 98 AMR Aston Martin Vantage GTE remained unchallenged in GTE-Am, with Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda controlling the class ahead of the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing in the hands of Matteo Cairoli.

Hour 1:

Sebastien Buemi leads a Toyota Gazoo Racing 1-2 after the first hour of the Six Hours of Silverstone, as the FIA World Endurance Championship season gets underway.

The Swiss driver has a lead of 2.5 seconds over the sister Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Mike Conway after all cars have now completed their first pit stops, but with the LMP1 teams electing not to change tires at this stage.

Brendon Hartley is third, while Neel Jani is fourth, with the Porsche 919 Hybrids down on pace as expected, owing to the manufacturer’s aero strategy ahead of Le Mans.

Nicolas Lapierre is out front in the LMP2 category having led most of the race in the Alpine A470 Gibson, while Alex Lynn and Bruno Senna are second and third.

The G-Drive Racing and Rebellion Racing Oreca 07 Gibsons have been battling it out for second in class throughout the opening hour, although the Brit now has a six-second lead over Senna.

Frederic Makowiecki was the standout driver of the GTE-Pro category, going from seventh to first in the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR but a slow pit stop and delayed exit has dropped him back down to seventh.

Andy Priaulx is back in the lead in the No. 67 Ford GT, after losing time earlier for an open door which forced him to pit 30 minutes earlier than his competition.

Aston Martin Racing has done much better in GTE-Am however, with Paul Dalla Lana currently out front having taken over the No. 98 car from Pedro Lamy, who led most of his opening stint.